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2017 CWA Gold Dagger (shortlist)
"Michael Farris Smith is one of the best writers of his generation, and this very well may be his best work" — Tom Franklin
In the vein of Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone and the works of Ron Rash, Desperation Road is set in a rough-and-tumble Mississippi town where drugs, whiskey, guns, and the desire for revenge violently intersect and collide.
For eleven years, the clock had been ticking for Russell Gaines as he sat in Parchman Penitentiary in the Mississippi Delta.
His time now up, and believing his debt paid, he returns home only to discover that revenge lives and breathes all around.
On the day of his release, a woman named Maben and her young daughter trudge along the side of the interstate under the punishing summer sun.
Desperate and exhausted, the pair spend their last dollar on a motel room for the night, a night that ends with Maben running through the darkness holding a pistol, and a dead deputy sprawled across the road in the glow of his own headlights.
With dawn, destinies collide, and Gaines is forced to decide whose life he will save — his own, or those of the woman and child?
Desperation Road is a gripping, guttural thriller of redemption and human frailty. It is due to be turned into a film of the same title starring Mel Gibson.
Praise for Desperation Road:
"Smith is a meticulous craftsman who evokes his protagonists and their world with patience and subtlety" — Publishers Weekly
"Outstanding" — Ron Rash
"As rich and alive and wounded as any you'll find in contemporary fiction" — Wiley Cash
"Both poetic and brutal, Desperation Road is a gorgeous and violent book." — Ivy Pochoda
Genre: Mystery
In the vein of Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone and the works of Ron Rash, Desperation Road is set in a rough-and-tumble Mississippi town where drugs, whiskey, guns, and the desire for revenge violently intersect and collide.
For eleven years, the clock had been ticking for Russell Gaines as he sat in Parchman Penitentiary in the Mississippi Delta.
His time now up, and believing his debt paid, he returns home only to discover that revenge lives and breathes all around.
On the day of his release, a woman named Maben and her young daughter trudge along the side of the interstate under the punishing summer sun.
Desperate and exhausted, the pair spend their last dollar on a motel room for the night, a night that ends with Maben running through the darkness holding a pistol, and a dead deputy sprawled across the road in the glow of his own headlights.
With dawn, destinies collide, and Gaines is forced to decide whose life he will save — his own, or those of the woman and child?
Desperation Road is a gripping, guttural thriller of redemption and human frailty. It is due to be turned into a film of the same title starring Mel Gibson.
Praise for Desperation Road:
"Smith is a meticulous craftsman who evokes his protagonists and their world with patience and subtlety" — Publishers Weekly
"Outstanding" — Ron Rash
"As rich and alive and wounded as any you'll find in contemporary fiction" — Wiley Cash
"Both poetic and brutal, Desperation Road is a gorgeous and violent book." — Ivy Pochoda
Genre: Mystery
Praise for this book
"Every once in a while an author comes along who's in love with art and the written language and image, William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy and Annie Proulx. You can add Michael Farris Smith s name to the list." - James Lee Burke
"Michael Farris Smith is a prodigiously talented writer whose new book is not only an exciting read but an important literary event." - Robert Olen Butler
"A novel that lends dignity and grace to those too often damned, DESPERATION ROAD is fearless, guttural, and thunderously heartfelt. Quite simply one of our finest writers at work today, Michael Farris Smith has made his own place at the table." - David Joy
"Michael Farris Smith taps into the rhythm of a world I know, and he does it so well, with such ease, that it's almost like I'm living it instead of reading it." - Jamie Kornegay
"Anchored by prose that is both poetic and brutal, Desperation Road is a gorgeous and violent book." - Ivy Pochoda
"An outstanding performance." - Ron Rash
"Michael Farris Smith is a prodigiously talented writer whose new book is not only an exciting read but an important literary event." - Robert Olen Butler
"A novel that lends dignity and grace to those too often damned, DESPERATION ROAD is fearless, guttural, and thunderously heartfelt. Quite simply one of our finest writers at work today, Michael Farris Smith has made his own place at the table." - David Joy
"Michael Farris Smith taps into the rhythm of a world I know, and he does it so well, with such ease, that it's almost like I'm living it instead of reading it." - Jamie Kornegay
"Anchored by prose that is both poetic and brutal, Desperation Road is a gorgeous and violent book." - Ivy Pochoda
"An outstanding performance." - Ron Rash
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